


Tess

by 1DandHP4ever



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-12
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-30 14:06:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8536102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1DandHP4ever/pseuds/1DandHP4ever
Summary: When Tess Johnson arrives at Aaron Hotchner's house asking por help, the team will be involved in a case so dark they'll fear for their lives.





	1. 0

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So, just to let you know, English is not my first language, so if you see any big mistake, comment it down! Also I'm writing on my tablet cause my computer crashed, so typos are more common!

0

It was raining. The streets were completely abandoned and silent. The only light came from a street lamp, threatening of shutting down. And out of nowhere, a figure came running in the dark, silently. A woman, with no more than 25 years old appeared. She seemed scared, looking behind her shoulder all the time, as to prevent from being followed. She kept on her way, always remaining as silent as possible,until the arrived to her destiny. She knocked on the door. Again and again, until someone answered. "Aaron Hotchner?" She asked to the confused looking man who was at the other side of the door. "Yes?" He said, raising his eyebrow, while observing the woman. She had long, brown hair, tieded in a ponytail. Her clothes were soaking wet, from being running on the rain. But the most defining trail was the desperate look the had on her face. "Agent Tess Johnson" She reached her pocket and showed her ID. " CIA" And a few hours later, six people would have been woken up with the same text on their phones: We've got a case.


	2. I

Secret sources told us that a huge drug and human traffic network is operating with base in DC." Hotch gave a brown file to everyone in the room. "It is believed to be controlled by her" A woman's picture appeared in the board. "Tess Johnson, 25 years old."  
"Secret source?" Morgan put down his file and looked at Hotch. "Wanna be more specific?"  
"No." Hotch said. "This is what we know. We have access to five victims of this network." He added, and five faces appeared in the board. "Mary Silver, 23, John May, 21, Stephen Louis, 25, Joan Payne, 23 and Catherine Spires, 22. This were all abducted with a six month space each and completely disappeared. There was mention of them  this last week on a chat room, bargain for prices."  
"Any relation between the victims?" Prentiss asked.  
"All from different states. Nothing indicates that they knew each other."  
"I think this are all victims of opportunity. If they are selling them,they can't just have a type, they need variation." Reid added.  
"Or maybe they stalked them for a while, trying to decide if they were good or not." JJ suggested.  
"That's more likely." Rossi agreed. "Hotch, how big is this network supposed to be?"  
"Huge. We're estimating about hundred people working on it and five thousand potentially clients."  
"We've got nothing to go!" Morgan said.  
"We need to start profiling Tess. Garcia, find all you can on her." Hotch ordered.  
"Yes, sir." She immediately got up and left the room.  
"JJ, Reid go talk with Mary and John families. Rossi you come with me to talk with Stephan's, Joan's and Catherine's. Prentiss and Morgan, go check the last abduction spot."  
Everyone consented and left.

Prentiss and Morgan were in a bus stop, on a very busy street in Washington.  
"Here says that Catherine disappeared while taking the bus to go to college, at 7am. This street must be full of people at that hour!" Prentiss observed.  
"Whoever abducts this people is bold enough to do it on day light and in a crowded placed. It's probably very experienced." Morgan added.  
Prentiss placed herself on the bench.  
"So, I'm waiting for the bus. A man approaches." Morgan started to walk towards her.  
"Maybe he whispers something on her hear and them grabs her arm. It could look like they knew each other."  
"It's a possibility." Prentiss picked up her phone.  
"Hotch? Hey. You with Catherine's parents?" Prentiss waited for the answered. "Morgan and I think that maybe he approaches them and plays nice so the go with him. How likely would Catherine be to speak to strangers?" On the other side of the line, Hotch asked the exact same thing to Catherine's parents. "Oh, OK. Thanks"  
"So?" Morgan asked.  
"According to her parents she's incredibly shy and doesn't talk to anyone." Prentiss informed.  
"So, there's not way the unsub approached her this way." Morgan concluded. "He could be the bus driver." Suggested.  
"It's a possibility. Let's go back and see what Garcia found on Tess Johnson."

Few hours before

_"Come in.", Hotch guided her inside her house._   
_"Thank you" she said. She sat on the couch, as Hotch indicated her._   
_"So, what's wrong?"_   
_Tess took a deep breath before starting._   
_"I've been undercover for a year now." She started. "And my whole  team died."_


	3. II

Hey baby girl, what did you find?" Morgan asked while coming in Garcia's cave. She was tipping like crazy, almost not noticing him coming in.  
"She's like a ghost!" She screamed. " She's the daughter of Rachel and Steven Johnson and from Ohio. She graduated high school at the age of 10, and I've got records of three different colleges where she took three different courses, which makes her having three PhD's."  
"A genius?" Morgan said. "Not another one! PhDs in what?"  
"Physics, Mathematics and Criminology" Garcia answered. "And that's all I have. No current address or job. Anything. It's like after college she totally vanished."  
"Garcia, if we're dealing with someone that knows how our job works we're screwed!"  
"I know Derek. I can't do anything else. It's impossible to find more things about her"  
"You're still the best baby girl!" He kissed her in the forehead and left.  
He walked straight to the meeting room. Everyone was already there.  
"Garcia found out she has three PhDs. But nothing else" Morgan informed.  
"If she's extremely smart, catching her won't be easy." Reid said. "She will always be one step ahead."  
"We can't let that kind of thoughts cross our minds" Hotch sat down and opened his notes. "So, what do you have on the victims?"  
"They were all low risk." JJ started. "And all very antisocial. Their psychological weakness must be one of the things taken into account."  
"Yeah, and they all had very specific routines, which makes very easy to be stalked." Reid added.  
"Garcia, can you try to enter the chat rooms where the victims where mentioned?" Rossi called her and put it on speaker.  
"Doing it as we speak sir." She said. "I'm there. Oh!" Her voice showed horror. "Oh my god! I need pictures of baby kittens and pandas right now!"  
"What is it Garcia?" Hotch asked?  
" Sir, they are not only selling the as sex slaves, as there are the option of buying only some body parts. I'm trying to trace the IP...Found something!"  
"What is baby girl?"  
"My sweet chocolate cake, I just found the address of one of the potential buyers!"  
"Send us please." Hotch asked.  
"Already did!"  
"Well, Morgan and Prentiss go check on it. The rest of us stays here working on Tess profile."  
Everyone agreed and Morgan and Prentiss left.  
"So, Tess is a high intelligence person, who runs a traffic network." Rossi started. "Garcia" He said to the phone. "Are her parents still alive?"  
"Hmm, let me see. Her mother is." Garcia informed. "I'm trying to check the other computer signal, the seller one, but their protection is huge!"  
"Garcia, what about her father?" Reid asked.  
"Her father died of heart attack two years ago. I just sent you her mother's address."  
JJ got up, but Hotch made her sign to sit down.  
"We're not going to talk to her mother." He said. "Not now."  
JJ raised her eyebrow and Rossi looked at him with a suspicious look.  
"What aren't you telling us Aaron?"  
"Can't tell you for now. Let's focus on this. Garcia, anything on the other computer?"  
"Yes, sir. The signal comes somewhere from Washington." She said. "I'll tell when I have further information"

 _"What happened?"_  
_"We had someone infiltrated in their organisation. But they had someone infiltrated in ours too"_


	4. III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can't believe this is actually getting reads!! Love you all, and hope you're enjoying!

Morgan and Prentiss knocked on the door, and a middle aged man opened it.

 "What?" He said, obviously looking mad for having to go open the door.

 "Louis Hederson? We're from FBI." Prentiss said, showing her badge. "Mind if we come in?"

 "FBI?!" The man expression went from pissed to scared. "I ain't nothing to do with feds!"

 "We just like to talk a bit, if you don't mind." Prentiss walked inside the house. Morgan followed her and they both sat on the couch. The man still looked petrified.

 "I did nothing wrong!" He said again.

 "We just have a few questions." Morgan made him signal to sit down, but he refused.

 "We found evidence of communication on a human traffic website in a computer in this very house." Prentiss started. "Anything you can tell us about that?"   
 

 "I...I..." But Morgan interrupted him.

 "No excuse to lie." He warned.

 "Fine! I did made part of that...that chat..." He confessed.

 "And still say you did nothing wrong?!" Morgan shouted, while getting up.

 "I didn't buy anyone! I swear!"

 Prentiss grabbed Morgan's arm, making him sit down.

 "I... I only buy..." Louis voice was trembling. " I only buy parts."

 Morgan and Prentiss looked chocked at each other.

 "Mr Hederson, any thought about who sold it to you?" Prentiss asked, trying to hide her disgustiness.

 "No idea, ma'am..." He seemed honest. "Everything is very confidential."

 Morgan and Prentiss both got up.

 "Thank you, Mr Hederson." Morgan said. "Altought you didn't actually buy human beings, buying body parts is a crime as well. He will inform local authorities." Louis petrefied look came back. He tryed to say something, but no words came out of his mouth.

_"I worked on the website. I made sure no one could break our protection." Tess explained, while holding in both hands the warm cup of coffe Hotch had given to her. " I was very trustworthy inside the organization. And when they found out there was an agent infiltrated, I wasn't even considerated a threat."_

_Hotch made her sign to keep going._

_" I tryed to communicate with my team, telling them there was someone working with them that belong to the network, but I never got an answer. I then, yesterday, I saw on the newspaper about their deads." Altought talking about the death of her co-workers, Tess voice didn't  trembled at all. No tears were at sight. Hotch found it interesting, but didn't say anything._

_"How can I help you?" He asked, with his calming voice._

_"There's going to be this huge deal seller next week. That's when we were supposed to catch them. I need your team to do it."_

_Hotch waited a while before speaking again._

_"Tess, I understand your position, but we can't just mess with CIA cases." He explained._

_"I can't trust anyone from there! One of them works for the biggest human traffic network in the world!"_

 


	5. IV

"The guy did buy body parts but has no idea about who sold it." Morgan informed Hotch. He and Prentiss were on their way back to the BAU. "Did Garcia found anything?"

 "Nothing, right now. Their protection is huge. But Kevin is helping her with it. Come back as fast as possible." Hotch said and then hunged up.

 "I've got this feeling Hotch is not telling us everything, you know?" Morgan commented with Prentiss. "He's acting very strangely. Why on earth shouldn't we go talk with Tess's mother?!"

 "I've been thinking about it too." Prentiss said. "But maybe he has reasons to hide things."

 "If we just went to see her mum before heading back, he would never find out." Morgan suggested. " I'll ask Garcia for the address."

 "Do you really wanna do that? Act behind his back?"

 "Prentiss, this woman is a psycopath with a even higher level of intellenge than the one they usually have!"

 Prentiss reflected about it. Of course she wanted to go talk to the mother and try to find more things, but there was this huge part of her that couldn't desrespect Hotch's orders.

 "We should go back, and see if he says anything new." She finally said. "And then we'll make a decision."

 Morgan agreed with her in silence, and kept his attention on the road, despite the fact he wasn't the one driving. He had the feeling they were being followed since they left Louis Hederson's house.

 "Prentiss..."

"Hm?"

"I think we're being followed..." He whispered.

"What?" She said, pressing the acelerator. "Are you sure?"

 "Act casual!"

She went back to the normal speed. There was indeed a black SUV following them.

"Let's see how far he'll come..." She whispered to herself.

 But that would never been possible. Because as she said that, another car came from ahead of them and shocked frontally.


	6. V

 "Sir! Sir!" Garcia screamed while entering Hotch's office. "Sir! I just lost signal of Prentiss and Morgan's phones!" Her voice was really high pitched.

 "Garcia, where were they the last time you checked?" Hotched got up and made a signal with his hand, to the rest of the team that was outside. 

 "Sir, they were on the road, on their way here!" She followed him, walking fast, until the round table. "And then, NOTHING!" She was walking all around the room. "Nothing!"

 "What happened?" Reid asked, while entering the room, followed by JJ and Rossi. "Any news?"

 "Prentiss and Morgan got missing." Hotch informed. "This is starting to get personal." He sat and picked up the file. "Maybe you should all sit."

 They did as asked, looking at Hotch, waiting for him to speak up.

 "The thing is, I haven't been totally honest with you since the beginning of this case." He was nervous, but his voice never broke, keeping his usual low tone. "There's some information I had to hide from you, but considering the circumstances, I think you should know what we're dealing with."

 Garcia looked shocked. JJ opened her mouth to speak, but gave up.

 "What do you mean Aaron?" It was Rossi who gain courage to speak.

 "It's very complicated, and what I'm about to tell you it's top secret." Hotch kept going. "This is CIA's business."

 "And what do we have to do with them?" JJ couldn't keep quite anymore.

 "I'll explain." And he did. He told them all about Tess, who had came into his home in the middle of the night.

 

_"I need your help, Agent Hotcher. I really do. You have to help me to shut all this network down." Tess spoke firmly, without hesitating. But you can't tell your team you're doing it. You have to present it as an ordinary case."_

_"Why so?"_

_"They cannot find out that I gave them up. They cannot know that I am the agent in the network, or else I'll die. Please. Pretend to catch me. Profile me." She asked._

_"If you're sure. But we could give you protection. You could just leave this behind your back." Hotch suggested._

_"No. I'm not leaving all that I've ever done behind. I'm going with this until the end. But I need to know if you're in."_

_"I am."_

"So, Tess is not the unsub but the victim." Reid said. "Interesting."

 

"What do we do now, sir..." Garcia whispered. "Do you think they found out about her?"

"No. But I think they're interest into knowing why we're working on their case. They need to know how we found them." He got up. "And they will, the minute we caugh them."


End file.
